How often, on average, does Lion-o forget what his powers are?
We're early enough in yet that he has the excuse of not knowing what they are. (And neither do we, strictly speaking; in TOS the sword's powers were "whatever the fuck is convenient in the last five minutes of the show", but this one might have rules of some sort.)
Anyway. In this episode, he exhibited the power of telling people to swim toward something they could cling to, pulling on a rope, and using the sword to cut a monster up.
...so actually the sword DOES have a power that it didn't in the original series: it can now be used as a sword.
God that was weird after the premiere. Just one episode out the gate, and they're doing a straight, no-frills Moby Dick concept.
The day after Futurama, no less.
You're supposed to do this sort of stuff in the middle of season 3, when you need some real filler material and you've already done the episode where they get into an organized car race and win in spite of the guy who's cheating with the engine sabotage
Didn't Batman:TB&TB do that at the beginning of season 2?
and the one where they get shrunk and have to fight the spider in the spider web
And that in the middle of season 1?